


Rough Waters - Fever Whump! IrondadBingo

by Wallowinginthewoods



Series: Irondad Bingo aka peter, steve or tony having a wee moment every 2 minutes [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Irondad, M/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Other, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Has a Family, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Mess, Steve Rogers is a Good Dad, Stony - Freeform, There's a dumb boy, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Whoop Whoop, there's a dog, there's a lake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-07 22:55:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19859365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallowinginthewoods/pseuds/Wallowinginthewoods
Summary: They would be fine, once they were out of rough waters that is.





	Rough Waters - Fever Whump! IrondadBingo

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> I wrote this in separate parts and I kinda thought it was gonna be longer than it is so apologies for how short it is but I hope you still enjoy!

The lake house was surreal. It's walls cradled years of anguish and pain but also of growth. It showed the lives of Tony and Steve, of two heroes recovering from their greatest defeat. Thanos took everything from them, their friends, their family, the safety and love they'd built together. Pepper was gone. They'd been struggling towards the ends of normal life on Earth, their relationship had come to an end after the accords tore so many of the Avengers apart and they'd decided that whilst they loved one another greatly, they no longer supported each other as they once had, but still, Pepper was Tony's rock, and without her, he was inevitably lost.

On Titan he was almost all alone. He had Nebula and the kid after the snap. Thank god for Nebula and Peter...when Tony had first seen Dr Strange and the Guardians disperse into molecules of ash, he knew with his luck he'd lose the boy he swore to protect. But he didn't. He held him so tightly in his arms and headed home, or in the direction they hoped was home. With his enhanced metabolism, Peter struggled the most out of the trio, he was selfless throughout - denying any food he felt he didn't absolutely need and rejecting Tony's offers to eat his own rations of the small supply they'd found aboard the ship, but towards the end he stumbled, the exhaustion from the harsh chills of the empty shelter and the lack of ample food and water in his body led him to let his front falter and slip as he grew weaker with each passing day. By the time the glowing, almost biblical saviour they came to know as Carol set them down on the land they'd began to think was just a fantasy born of deranged minds, Peter was unconscious. The boy barely breathing as Steve hauled his limp body to the med bay where he prayed someone could help the young hero.

Steve hadn't come off lightly either. The man he risked his entire life for, the man who'd stuck by his side, the man who was supposed to with him till the end of the line, was degraded to specks of limb and man in Wakandan soil. Sam was gone too, his support system. One of the first people he'd come to truly care for and rely on in his new modern life. It was all lost. It was impossible for him to process that reality of what Thanos had gloated over them all, to truly come to terms with the fact that after risking the life he'd built after waking from numbing ice for a man he was reassured would be by his side for the rest of his new vigilante life, none of it mattered. Even with some Avengers surviving, he'd betrayed them. He'd taken the support and love they'd shown him and thrown it away for a glimpse at his old life. He woke now almost every night to the heavy weight digging into his shoulders of the feeling following the fight in Wakanda. The pathetic distress seared into his bones, the inability to do anything but feel useless. He had a chance, and his tried so, so hard. But there was no hope. Not anymore. No matter how much he preached to communities about growing and overcoming, no matter how strong he had to be. He'd never felt more suited to his pre-serum self. Weak and dependent on everyone around him, expect now those people were dead, and there wasn't anyone to pick him up after a fight and wipe the blood from his face and the tears from his eyes.

It had taken a long time for Steve and Tony to bare the sight of one another. Or more so Tony to Steve. He yelled and fought, rightly unwilling to forgive the betrayal set on him. But soon they both came to realise they didn't have enough people left to mistreat the ones still with them. So an agreement of civility was promised between them, one that would, in the isolation of the post snap Earth, turn into something much greater. Once Peter awoke from the terrible coma his malnutrition had drowned him in, they became a unit of sanctity and a source of stability amongst one another.

That was how they found themselves in the walls of the lake house. Frames of lost friends on the wall, scattered amongst new memories with a family they'd built through the anguish of Thanos' anger. Tony and Steve sat in the lounge, bodies laid out on comfortable sofas with cascading limbs over limbs bundled in thick blankets. Tony's fingers, calloused with rough skin from years of electric shocks and focused work, ran through Steve's blonde locks. Slight tinges of silver showed through them now, the years were getting on after all, and you can hardly expect a man who's lived through so much to still stand as he did 20 years before. They spent as many nights as they could this way. Together. Often they had the boy they'd taken in as a son between them too, but, drawn outside by the trickling snow, he had left them alone. Peter had dealt with loss before the snap. He had lost his parents before he could even remember them, and then Uncle Ben...Aunt May was the cherry on top of the cake of despair. Waking to an Earth sliced in half would have been unsettling enough without the sudden news that May had been taken from him. In a way, he was glad it was this way around, he couldn't bare the thought of her having to live on without him, he was all she had left. None of them were ever going to fully recovered from the effects Thanos had on their lives, but they were going to learn to be alright. Together they were figuring out how to live.

"Where's your son now Stark?" Steve mumbled, voice slightly muffled by his cozy position beside his partner.

"Oh so once he could be in trouble he's just mine?" Tony retorted. "You adopted him too Rogers."

"I'm just making sure he hasn't run off into the woods with the dog, it's too cold for him to be out any longer, he's only a baby."

"He's seventeen, Hun."

Before Steve could respond, Dodger came bounding up to them. He was a playful dog, rescued in the mayhem of broken units that followed the snap, but he was acting differently now. He rushed to the men's sides and began to full on their sweaters, teeth bared through the thick wool and urging them off the sofa to stand. Soft whimpers emitted from his mouth and his head darted from the open doorway to his baffled owners.

"Whoa, what is it boy?" Steve asked the distressed dog, reaching forwards to calm him. Dodger only barked in reply, running now between the door and the two men, urgency screaming from his every movement.

"Steve..." Tony trailed off, beginning to understand the dogs motions.

"Peter!"

Steve was out the sliding glass doors in a second. Never before had he been so thankful for the speed he had gained after the serum. He follower Dodger closely in the dark, the atmosphere was blurry with snow and his breath fogged the air in front of him. He could hear Tony following behind, the ragged breaths coming from the both of them whirling with the harsh winds of the night and their screaming voices.

"Peter!"

"Dad!" They heard a distant plead from their son, he was close, so close but not yet safe.

Dodger came to halt by the bank of the lake. Steve knew. Every instinct in his mind told him to run, to get away from the icy waters that were so similar to the waves that trapped him years before, but they had his son now.

Pushing his feet from the muddy water bank, Steve dove in to the numbing waters in desperate search for Peter, who's shouts for his parent shad began to quieten. Steve fought through the flesh biting cold and battled through the merciless waters. He was struggling to stay afloat himself, he couldn't even imagine the fight Peter was facing. With Dodger's barks and Tony's shouts the fading out into the background, Steve honed in on the distant whimpers coming from the water, they stopped after a second and he could hear small limbs thrashing under the surface. Filling his freezing lungs with a breath of winter air, he dove in again. He could see Peter now, a few feet from him, struggling to get back to the face of the lake and failing painfully. Steve reached an arm out to his son, realising quickly he was losing consciousness he pushed harder, wrapping an arm around his middle and tugging him towards his body. Once he secured the boy in one arm, he kicked and kicked against the current, realising how cold he really was with each second he spend in the water, that didn't matter now though, he had to get Peter out.

At the sight if his partner and son breaking the surface of his previously beloved lake, Tony let out a sigh of relief. He leaned over the bank, slipping slightly before he got a good grip around Peter who Steve was now struggling to hold. He hauled the boy towards him, lifting his limp body from the water and cradling him on the snowy ground. Steve pushed himself out of the water and came rushing to help. CPR was already in full motion and Tony was cursing under his breath with each attempt triggering no response. Steve felt tears prickling his eyes, he couldn't lose Peter too.

It could have been hours for all the two men knew before Peter coughed icy water from his lungs and shot up. His eyes darted around confused and scared, once setting on his fathers though he relaxed and let the emotions pour.

"D-Dad I-I didn't mean to- I needed to save..save Dodger but then I-I couldn't get o-out!" He stuttered and sobbed between heavy and unstable breaths.

"Hey, hey!" Steve spoke clearly and loudly, desperate to calm his child. "It's okay, we need to get you inside."

With that, Peter was scooped into Steve's arms again and they were hurrying inside the dimly lit living room of their home. They lay Peter down on the sofa they had only moments before been sprawled out over. As Steve ran to get dry, warm clothes, Dodger jumper up to inspect the boy, licking his face and hair to ensure he was okay. After Tony had finished saving Peter from Dodger, he pulled the soaking jumper over his head, repeating the action with his t-shirt, until the shivering boy lay shirtless on the sofa.

"I know- I know it's cold, but you're gonna get sick in those wet clothes, Kiddo." Tony soothed as he wrapped Peter up in thick blankets Steve threw to him. Peter nodded weakly, trying to focus on his surroundings and stay awake. Peter seemed to be warming up, he still shivered and whimpered under his breath but he was looking better.

"I-Dodger was- He fell in and then..the bank was too high and-" Peter began to ramble, his eyes drifting off into the distance, remembering each detail of his icy adventure, how it had felt to be so overpowered and afraid. He loved Steve and Tony, they had become fathers to him, but that was one of the first times he had truly felt like their child, rescued and protected.

"It's okay, Pete...you're alright now." Steve hushed him, sitting down beside him on the sofa and pulling his blanket wrapped body into his chest in an attempt to speed the warming process up. "Besides from a fever in the morning, you're all alright....Dodger too."

Tony rested on the floor, leaning slightly on the coffee table and gazing at the two people he held so dearly in the split world he'd found himself in not so long ago. When the warriors around him began to crumble to ash and he understood what Thanos had done, he thought his whole world would be ripped from him. He hadn't any hope of keeping Peter safe, or ever seeing Pepper, Rhodey or Happy again. But, whilst he lost far more than anyone ever should, he was left with a lot more than he'd ever feel he deserved. The path to his relationships now, with his son and his husband, were winding and puzzling. There were days they'd fight and fight, contemplating whether they'd just made a bigger mess, or Peter would cry and yell that they'd never be May, that they shouldn't keep pretending to be his fathers. But there were also days were they'd drive out to visit Natasha and Bruce and things would feel just a little normal again, or they'd lay lazily in bed until Friday alerted them of a kitchen emergency Peter had caused. There were family dog walks (Tony insisted they were more like harrowing treks) and birthday mornings, lab days and the sense of stability.

As Tony sat there, a damp but towel covered Dodger resting in his lap and the sight of a dozing Peter napping against his father's chest, fingers twirling and wandering through his drying brown locks and a peaceful expression resting on Steve's face, he knew he could make it. He could break and sob and plead and feel hopelessly useless in the grand scheme of evil, but he would make it. He had Steve and Peter and they were all he'd ever need.

Apart from a fever, they were all alright.


End file.
